The quality of the ambulance service continues to raise serious concerns. The Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations (FPA) expresses its concern at the complete lack of progress on this topic.
The organization presented its proposals for reforming the service to the country's president in March of this year. She proposed three options for how a national ambulance service could operate.
All of them assume that the management of ambulance services will move away from the Organization of National Health Services (OKIPI) to a new department. It could be:
– a sub-ministry or “independent crisis service” (first option), – an independent body for the coordination of emergency services (second option), – or a separate department under the Ministry of Health (third option).
All three options assume a transition period so that OKIPI receives profit from the operation of ambulances within two years. “Unfortunately, until today, that is, until the end of July, we have not received an answer. No discussion has taken place and the issue remains without progress,” said OSAC spokesman Miltos Miltiadus.
OSAC's statement comes a few days after the director of the private clinic Limassol Medical Center, Andreas Pantazis, called for private ambulances to be included in the GeSI.
A letter was sent to the Minister of Health, Michalis Damianos. There, the director of the clinic said that the current system, according to which private hospitals affiliated with GeSI are required to have their own ambulances, but cannot use them to serve patients under GeSI, is unacceptable.
Under the current system, a private clinic, even if it has ambulances, is required to request a car from OKIPI to transport patients.
“We consider it unacceptable to have ambulances and not have the right to serve our patients with them. OKIPI fulfills its duties with delays, patients have to wait for hours for an ambulance,” Pantazis writes in an open letter.
The text was prepared based on materials from Cyprus Mail and Politis
At the same time
The work of ambulances is seriously complicated by two factors. The first is the selfish attitude of residents and practical jokes. The second is when an ambulance responds to obviously false calls. More details at the link.
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